


Mercy

by TeaRoses



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: F/F, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 10:53:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13339755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: Books are dangerous in Gilead.  Written for the prompt "daisy" in the Femslashficlets language of flowers challenge.





	Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> One meaning of the daisy is that the sender can keep a secret.

Ofrobert finds the book under a couch cushion. It is the couch in the living room where she sits to do her embroidery. She hates embroidery but Robert likes to see "his ladies" keep themselves busy and it's better than some other things they could ask her to do.

The book is obviously not Robert's - it's an old-fashioned bodice ripper with a half-dressed man and woman on the cover and it's called "Love's Savage Fury." It's the sort of thing she would have laughed at in the old days, but now a woman being caught with a book is serious matter.

Anna, the Martha who is assigned to their house doesn't seem the type for savage fury, and she never sits on the couch, so the book probably isn't hers. Ofrobert eventually decides it's best to just put the book back where she found it and pretend she never saw it. But before she can do that, Linda, Robert's wife, comes into the room.

The look on Linda's face says everything. It's her book. Ofrobert stands frozen. 

"I hid it there yesterday when I heard Robert come in and I meant to come back and get it but there wasn't time," Linda says.

Ofrobert is surprised at her honesty, but simply nods.

"I know..." Linda trails off, then looks Ofrobert in the eye and starts again. "I know what we're doing... you won't forgive us. I wouldn't either, but please don't tell."

Tears gather in Linda's eyes and she wipes at her face. "I've been as nice to you as I can be," she says, her voice trembling.

Ofrobert wants to say that there's nothing nice about any of this, but she understands what Linda is trying to say. Linda has never struck her, never punished her, never locked her in her room or done any of the worse things her fellow Handmaids speak of. 

She hands the book back to Linda. "I won't tell," she says. She would be afraid to, but she doesn't say that.

"In the old days I would never have read a book like that. I mean it's a dirty book, and it's just stupid!" Linda opens it. "'His dark and brooding eyes loomed over her as she lay sprawled across the bedsheets.' What does that even mean? How do eyes loom?"

Ofrobert can't help laughing at this. Linda even laughs along with her. 

"It's just that I miss it. Reading. I thought if we stopped some of the wrong things that were happening in the world, the corruption and sin, then eventually they'd let us have books again, at least a Bible. But they didn't, and I'm stuck reading anything I can get, in secret."

Ofrobert hazards some honesty of her own. "I miss it too. I never read books like that either, but I liked poetry."

"Do you remember any?" Linda asks eagerly.

She clears her throat. "'The art of losing isn't hard to master. So many things seem filled with the intent to be lost--'" The words are much more real than she wants them to be, and she can't continue. Linda looks lost herself. Ofrobert tries not to think of her as a victim but some Wives surely are. She is certain Handmaids weren't Linda's idea.

Now Linda is crying in earnest. Robert isn't due home for hours but Ofrobert doesn't want anyone to see her so upset. Tentatively she reaches out and Linda lays her head on Ofrobert's shoulder. This is the only time they have touched outside the ceremony, and warmth rushes through Ofrobert at the contact, along with an electricity she is afraid to acknowledge. They are so close that she forgets who they are for a moment and strokes Linda's hair, even brushes a kiss over her lips like a lover might.

Linda pulls away but she smiles. "I don't even know your real name!" she says. Clearly she thinks something has begun here, and maybe she is right.

"Mercy," Ofrobert says. It's a lie, but today she feels more merciful than she thought she ever would again. Maybe the day will even come when she will trust Linda with her real name.

**Author's Note:**

> The poem quoted in the fic is "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop.


End file.
